In early 2025 we became co-located with the social enterprise Substation33 in a new site at unit 9 / 26 Ellerslie Road, Meadowbrook.
Since the early days of SLBatteries, we have supported each other businesses with tooling, knowledge and battery supply as we both share the common goal of diverting usefull 'e-waste' materials from landfill or complete destruction.
The collaboration is a particularly beneficial one for creating final use cases for second life batteries, as Substation33 has a number of impactful ongoing projects that utalise energy storage systems, most notably: flooded road signage, Powerwells solar batteries, C4C Reverse Vending Machines, solar coffee trailer and remote solar power installations in communities experiencing energy poverty.
Flooded Road Signage
Batteries intended for use in Electric Mine Site Vehicles have been repurposed into Flooded Road signs all around Australia. These signs are designed and built in the Substation33 workshop with a large proportion of other recycled materials including screens from televisions!
PowerWells (PowerWells Foundation)
Photos below of this project:
Since 2022, SLBatteries has been supplying Powerwells with 18650 cells recovered from E-scooter batteries from Brisbane retailers and hire fleet operators. These cells goin into making these ultra-mini, affordable and reliable solar batteries used to provide phone charging and lighting for communities in Australia, Indonesia and Vanuatu.
Reverse Vending Machines
Below is a sneak-peak into one of the latest projects coming out of Substation33. This is a containerised, off-grid containers for change drop off point that is fully automated and solar powered.
Bottles and cans are fed into the container along conveyor belts and sorted by machines into separated bins. Along the top of the container, we can see custom built lithium batteries made from modules recovered from HEVs.
Solar Coffee Trailer
This big battery is contained in a solar trailer that is hired out at events as a mobile coffee cart. These cells were sourced from a local business that provided Electric vehicle upgrades and these cells were otherwise destined for scrap.
More of these trailers are in the pipe-line and will be available in the coming months, with built in solar charging and inverters, capable of storing up to 80KwHr.
Combating Energy Poverty
The little orange battery seen in this all in one solar battery and inverter setup was sourced from retired medical equipment. We recover these batteries, verify their capacity and condition and if suitable send them of for new lives like this. Six of these units were made and are currently being installed in a community center in Vanuatu.